I never really got the appeal of Sober. I love almost every other Tool song to death, but I cannot get into this one. I don't really see what parts of the songs are cool and are supposed to be something.
For example, near the end of Lateralus the song cuts to just the guitar, preparing you to drop into mindblowing systematic anarchy, and then the song climaxes and everyone bursts. Could anyone explain to me what parts of Sober are supposed to climactic or cool or just what the appeal is?
the rythm is more interesting than other band's (sad i know), but is still easy to follow. the melody is also complex, like all of tool's melodies, but is easy to follow as well
might have something to do with the subject matter...
wishing for sobreity amidst a world awash in emotional stipulations and centering that wish on the Church (why the guilt... why can't we just be sober and not be reminded of all the wrong we've done and hurt we've caused... why do you have to keep bringing up my "past and done" faults?) is certainly out of the ordinary, especially for early-mid '90s.
__________________ Away with our explosives then! Away with our destroyers! They have no place within our better world... But let us raise a toast to all our bombers, all our bastards, most unlovely and most unforgivable.
Let's drink to their health, then meet with them no more.
9.30.2006 - Washington, D.C.
6.07.2007 - Richmond, VA
I agree. Its a good song, but its very droning. I can only remember having listened to the whole song once, without getting annoyed with that dundun-dka-dundun rhythm.
__________________ Feel The Rhythm | Feel Connection | Feel Inspired
Fathom The Power | Witness The Beauty | Bathe In The Fountain
Swing On The Spiral
Be A Human
Woah....I don't understand how anyone can "not like" this song.
This is the song that got me into Tool. And when I'm converting people to TOOL, usually this is the song i make them listen to first. Then I make them listen to the more deep stuff.
I personally Love this song. I think the best part of this song is when maynard say's "Trust me, Trust me" God that might be one of the best parts to a song.
__________________ "Cold Silence has a tendency to,
Atrophy any sense of Compassion"
-Schism
There is no dought that Sober is a good song, and it is very likable. If it was written by another band everybody would be praising it.
As you say, its only troble is that it lacks depth. It does´nt develop into everything.
People should stop critising it, because if it was´nt for Sober, Tool would´nt have any fans.
i totally back you up! if anybody doesn't like this song, that's because it says nothing to them and they are new to the feelings that bought the artist to compose it, so they don't know how to seize them. like trying to talk to a wall, the artist doesn't get through, and as a result those listeners will just judge the riff, which may seem a little repetitive.
i really LOVE this track, as it exceeds in an element that is to me fundamental: it creates the perfect atmosphere and mood to the lyrics, all blending in an unreal immagery! so dark and sorrowfull, like a still bleeding wound. the perfect song to commit suicide with!
__________________ Voluptates, blanditissimae dominae, animos a virtute detorquent
Woah....I don't understand how anyone can "not like" this song.
This is the song that got me into Tool. And when I'm converting people to TOOL, usually this is the song i make them listen to first. Then I make them listen to the more deep stuff.
I personally Love this song. I think the best part of this song is when maynard say's "Trust me, Trust me" God that might be one of the best parts to a song.
Exactly, this is THE song that got me into rock/metal/alt what have you... picture an unsuspecting kid left alone in a room by his friend, deeply baked, with Sober playing. Overall sound made the transition almost instant.
__________________ And so what you're saying when you say 'I understand it intellectually, but I don't get it intuitively,' or 'I don't feel it in my bones,' is that you understand it in the sense of being able to repeat a form of words.
I agree that this isn't one of the best Tool songs, but I bought Undertow back in '94 after hearing this song and seeing it on MTV (back when they actually played videos...and good ones at that). I've been a fan ever since. So it does have a significant meaning to me since it got me into Tool. Shortly after I bought Opiate which is a killer album as you all know.
I never really got the appeal of Sober. I love almost every other Tool song to death, but I cannot get into this one. I don't really see what parts of the songs are cool and are supposed to be something.
For example, near the end of Lateralus the song cuts to just the guitar, preparing you to drop into mindblowing systematic anarchy, and then the song climaxes and everyone bursts. Could anyone explain to me what parts of Sober are supposed to climactic or cool or just what the appeal is?
I remember one night I was driving home trying to make curfew when this song began playing on the radio. I had heard it before, but so long ago it was one of those (oh I forgot about this) type of songs. I really enjoyed it. I went home and checked out the song while it was fresh on my mind. Then of course noticed Schism and remembered it too. I decided if Tool played more music like Sober I would love them (haha yeah....). I went to some other sites. I saw Stinkfist on this very site: http://www.entertainment.inuk.com/ye...90s_songs.html. I listened to it and was hooked. I kept digging....
Now Tool is my favorite band and Stinkfist my favorite song...all because of this song. Its not in my favorites anymore, but will always be respected for this reason.
Also to answer the thread...In Lateralus the build up is much greater, but Sober does have one. The part where Maynard is almost whispering "I am just a worthless liar, I am just an imbecile. I will only complicate you. Trust in my and fall as well. I will find a center in you. I will chew it openly. Trust me, trust me...." And then the squeal from Adam...that part is amazing.
The instrumental playing does tend to get a little repetative at times, but its still better than most bands out there now. Though, the entire reason i love this song so much is because of the way he screams WHY CANT WE NOT BE SOBER, after he says "Mother Mary wont you whisper, something but the past and done"...... he sounds dismayed and angry and depressed at the same time.....something only Maynard can do.
The instrumental playing does tend to get a little repetative at times, but its still better than most bands out there now. Though, the entire reason i love this song so much is because of the way he screams WHY CANT WE NOT BE SOBER, after he says "Mother Mary wont you whisper, something but the past and done"...... he sounds dismayed and angry and depressed at the same time.....something only Maynard can do.
that "repetative"ness is part of what i love about it. its a very mezmerizing cadance that has a very drawing effect, atleast one me
along with maybe 4 others on this post... i seriously cannot belive how you dont see meaning in this song (both deep and straight to the point), i personally can relate to this song on an eery level. they're simple lyrics but they have strong, meaningful words behind them, not every great song needs to be so fucking complex that it takes you several listens just to really hear the lyrics. this is by far my favorite song of Tool hands down. and for those of you who really can't find meaning in this, try watching the video, it has a great story behind it that i think reveals a little more about maynard's reason for writing it
that "repetative"ness is part of what i love about it. its a very mezmerizing cadance that has a very drawing effect, atleast one me
another comment, the repetitive nature of this song is intentional, in most songs he tells more of a story but here he's singing about something more specific and just trying to get one mindset across to the listener. but at the same time, he isn't the type to tell you how to perceive his art but instead really open your mind into a more artistic point of view and picture it in your own way.
Its funny how much time is spent on other tool songs, but I am really curious to know what people think Maynard is singing about in Sober. Its obvious that like all other tool songs there is some deeper meaning. A few years ago I read something on this song that was supposedly Maynard's own words. It said something about this song being about a friend of his who was/is an artist, and how he always created his greatest works of art when his mind had been altered by some substance. I'm NOT saying that what I read was factual, but it was on the tool page so there had to be some kind of truth behind it. Help me out here guys, lets look at this song "from a different angle, under a different light, and maybe we can kinda see it again for the first time."
__________________ Hesitation only leads to regret.
Last edited by 8moremucscles; 10-03-2006 at 06:34 AM..
I went back and did some research, and I want to appologize for my short, short memory. The quote I was talking about in my last post is wrong. I do have a blurb I copied from an article Published in the "Musician" in december of 93. It was in an interview with Adam Jones:
Which is maybe why Tool comes off so incisive. The observations in
"Bottom" could regard storms under the skin or strategies against social
inequity. "In order to survive you/I must first survive myself/There's no
choice but to confront you, engage you, erase you." It's similar to the
conundrum in "Sober," which is "about a guy whose best comes out when he's
loaded," continues Jones. "People give him shit for it, but we're saying,
'Why chastise him? Leave him the fuck alone.' It's a poetic interpretation
of that conflict."
__________________ Hesitation only leads to regret.
Could it be that everyone is so obsessed with the deeper meaning in tool songs that they fail to see the beauty that is staring them in the face?
i agree with this
__________________ If I'm on the toilet longer than 2 minutes I'm jerking off. - (jag) toolhed46n2//support your loco bands
Bin Purpose: You are the real fluxerpretation, its true personification. TOYKO!! R.I.P. The Alien Gus
I've always liked the song, although it's not the one that introduced me to the band. There's a great energy in this song, although more of that energy can be found in other songs.
__________________ Veiled and shadowy, you attack me too;
Now at your whim I bare my back
Under your assault.
I fucking adore this song and am really surprised so many people are not keen on it. There is something about the way it opens that as someone above me has said, is completely mesmeric. It makes you want to move, close your eyes, it’s pure simplicity but just great music.
As for the meaning, what Adam said is cool and I can actually completely relate to that and the point of the song as a whole, but in this case the actual meaning of the song is not what draws me to it. It’s just a chunk or pure musical perfection imo, and when Maynard opens up and sings the second chorus it gives me goosebumps. It’s also one of their most powerful songs live, just a huge wall of sound, emotional and catchy as hell at the same time.
I've always loved Sober...it has such an overall "desperate" mood about it...i don't know it's so beautiful it creeps me out...and as for simple song structures - not every song has to always be packed with tons of polyrhythms, 20 different time signatures and what have you. Sometimes, even in life, it's the simple things we say, do or feel that make the big difference.
I didn't like this song at first as well as the entire "undertow" album.
But as time went by I finally saw the beauty of that song. It's dark and emotionally charged. It has depth and it creates an atmosphere of desolation (that's my interpretation at least). Not everyone has to like a particular song. Somebody finds it appealing, somebody doesn't.
i think the secret power to this song lays with how one can associate it with thier personal experiences. its a well cool song to relate to my own experiences, and i think thats a big reason for why the song is even on the album. Sober may appear shallow and simple in comparison to so many other tool songs, but youve all got to admit, this song is there to be built upon.
When i first started reading the lyrics and memorising them to heart i decided sober for me represented my own troubles with alcohol on one level, but also, it represents the kind of emotion that i feel when something in life shocks me into feeling sober.
__________________ A Groan Of Tedium Escapes Me
Don't get big ideas, they are not going to happen.
Hubbs and Connelly are out driving around in Hubbs' car "The Blue Torpedo"
Connelly plays "Don't fear the reaper" in Hubbs' cassette deck.
Hubbs: "I told you never to play that pussy song in the blue torpedo."
Connelly: "But it's Blue Oyster Cult, how can it be pussy?"
Hubbs: "I don't give a fuck if it's Blue Oyster Cult, every band puts out at least one pussy song so they can find out who the fags are!"
So if someone doesn't like this song it's because they can't associate with the lyrics? Lay off the generalizations sparky.
I loved this song when I first heard it, and I still love hearing maynard scream the chorus, but has time progressed it's become one of my least favorite Tool songs. However I still feel that the lyrics, and the vocal stylings of the song are its strengths.
They play this song over and over again live and it's really starting to get old. Whenever I hear people say "Hey man great show but I wished they'd played sober" I always cringe. Especially when people throw out the "I'd wish they'd played Sober instead of Right In Two/Opiate/etc".
Tool has a huge variety of much more dynamic songs that I've come to appreciate over time to much greater degree. Play those, don't play the instant-hit wonder.
During the 10k days tour, I've yet to experience the intensity of the album version of Sober live. It's one of the few songs that I think are worse live.
